I am good about getting my shots. At my advanced age I was supposed to get a pneumonia shot and a shingles shot, so I got them.

I also got a flu shot. I didn't get a flu shot in Tanzania or Kenya. I got it at my Doc's office on K Street so I can only assume it was full strength.

Next year, I'm going to ask for super strength, because if I don't have the flu, I have a really, really bad cold.

I am generally pretty healthy. Other than the occasional cardiac bypass surgery and a minor hernia procedure, I mostly stay out of hospitals and only go to the myriad of specialists as is warranted by my advancing age.

In fact, it is probably because I do all the preventative stuff that my age is continuing to advance.

But tonight. As I type this. I feel as if I am one sneeze away from being the main character in Barbara Tuchman's book "A Distant Mirror" which was about the Black Plague in the 14th century.

It is a good thing that I don't get sick very often because I'm like a cat that doesn't feel well: I want to be left alone to curl up behind the couch until I'm hungry or thirsty then I want food and/or apricot nectar instantly.

Bendy straw not crucial, but certainly appreciated.

The flu is an astonishingly tenacious set of little bugs.

In any given year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 5 - 20 percent of U.S. residents will get it.

Keep in mind there are about 315 million people in the U.S. so even in a weak year, we can expect between 15.75 and 63 MILLION cases. Even at a mortality rate of 0.08 percent, that would mean - in a big year - 49,000 people in America would die of seasonal flu.

That's a lot of people dying from what most of us consider to be a relatively benign disease.

There are some years when both the infection rate and mortality rate explode. In 1918 the "Spanish Flu," which likely began in an army camp in Kansas, raced around the globe infecting between 20% and 40% of the population worldwide (compared to the U.S. infection rates above).

It killed about 50 million people, including 675,000 in the U.S. In that era there were about 105 million people.

If the current flu were to morph into a Spanish-like (or SARS-like) virus in 2013, we could lose 2 million Americans over the next year or so.

It is because flu is so ubiquitous that health officials keep such close tabs on outbreaks in places like bird markets and pig farms in China.

A very small increase in mortality means a huge jump in actual deaths.

In the Spring of 2003 an outbreak of a flu-like virus was detected in China and (of all places) Toronto. It was named SARS, for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

I didn't have it, but I thought I had it and wrote what turned out to be a pretty funny Travelogue (click HERE to read it). But it was only funny because I didn't have SARS.

If you haven't gotten a flu shot (and you haven't had the flu this season) go to your local doc, clinic, or drug store and get one.

If you do get a shot, don't go hanging around sick people. The overall effectiveness of flu shots is estimated at 60 percent to 70 percent in a good year, according to an infectious disease specialist from South Carolina.

So, I appear to be one of the 30-40 percent of the "special people" for whom the shot did not offer full protection.

I don't feel horrible, but I am coughing and sniffling and I feel like someone opened a valve in my ankle and let all my energy out.

I’ve got something, but I don’t think it’s the flu. I’ve had the flu several times in the last 59 years, and full-blown pneumonia once, but I’ve never had what’s ailing me now. I can’t stop coughing, and I’m exhausted beyond description. I’ve had whatever this is for almost two weeks now, and it shows no sign of winding down. Never had anything like it.

5
posted on 01/07/2013 9:48:46 AM PST
by Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)

Are your eyes burning and are you having sneezing fits that make you feel like you will pass out before you stop sneezing?

I’m still getting over the flu and your symptoms sound similar to mine (how it started anyhow). It’s been pretty brutal and I’ve been taking Tamiflu for the better part of 4 days now. I originally thought it was bronchitis, so I went to the doc for it. I have never seen the doc’s office so busy!

When I got out of the military and returned home in 1976, I fell victim to the CDC and the government’s warnings about the dreaded SWINE FLU....it took me years to get over that concoction of evil....I suffered thereafter from general malaise, pleursy and other ailments that lasted for a couple of decades.

The CDC can stick their flu shots of any order up their keesters. They prescribe potential disability and death as far as I’m concerned. In the later years since then, they (CDC) has only gotten worse with its “gun diseases” “family violence disease” et al.

My advice is to skip them alltogether and just wash your hands and don’t touch your face, etc. during their “flu season.”

Exactly. I've had the flu 3 times. The last time was about 30 years ago. I never, EVER get flu shots. A "50-60%" success rate doesn't sound worth it to me. I take cod liver oil, zinc, and all my other essential nutrients faithfully. The largest part of the immune system is in the intestines, anyway. But if a shot works for you, go for it. They can keep their "vaccine." Something that gives you the disease it is supposed to prevent doesn't sound to me like much of a cure.

12
posted on 01/07/2013 10:03:08 AM PST
by redhead
(Height of futility: Paying taxes to a government without a budget)

I’m recovering from the same thing. The doc said I have some asthma-like symptoms and put me on an inhaler for a couple of weeks. It was just over 2 weeks of being totally wiped that I’ve now started to rebound — energy is way up, though I still have some cough and congestion.

13
posted on 01/07/2013 10:11:17 AM PST
by kevkrom
(If a wise man has an argument with a foolish man, the fool only rages or laughs...)

I don’t usually get the flu, but I did this season...with a wallop! Also got a nice case of opportunistic strep throat 5 days after the flu symptoms started. It all started shortly after Thanksgiving. The cough took several weeks to about a month to disappear. No energy for weeks, and nothing tasted any good at all. The silver lining is that I shed a few pounds, and still haven’t gained them back.

I work as a cashier in a department store, so I handle plenty of cash (full of germs). Everyone where I work has been getting sick with this flu for at least a few days. I cringe when my coworkers come back to work too early (still running a fever). I’m hoping to avoid round two.

Haven’t had the flu in years - and will not, under any circumstances, get a flu shot. But this strain, whatever it is, is a real tough one and has swept through Texas. My son come down with it about 4 weeks ago and still has a cough. He passed it on to me and his mother. Terrible cough, fever that comes and goes, headaches, general body ache and the need to sleep all the time. Been two weeks now and still have a lingering cough and tiredness. Avoid this if at all possible.

15
posted on 01/07/2013 10:42:16 AM PST
by Donkey Odious
( Adapt, improvise, and overcome - now a motto for us all.)

Are your eyes burning and are you having sneezing fits that make you feel like you will pass out before you stop sneezing?

No, I'm not having any sneezing issues. It's just the cough that will not stop. My lungs keep filling with fluid and my body keeps trying to empty them. I've just about worn out the muscles I cough with.

16
posted on 01/07/2013 10:42:42 AM PST
by Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)

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